BioCartilage: A New Biomaterial to Treat Chondral Lesions.

Abstract

Articular cartilage damage affects almost everyone at some point. Our ability to heal these defects has been very limited. Microfracture, which is one of the most common attempted surgeries for chondral lesions, has resulted in poor long-term outcomes. Other solutions like allograft osteochondral autograft transfer system, DeNovo, or autologous chondrocyte implantation are more extensive, difficult, expensive surgeries, and are better served for larger lesions. Smaller lesions have shown good short-term outcomes with microfracture but result in creation of fibrocartilage, which is weaker and softer and does not hold up long term. A simple, inexpensive, longer-term solution is needed. BioCartilage is dehydrated, micronized allogeneic cartilage that can be implanted with platelet-rich plasma into these smaller cartilage defects. BioCartilage acts as scaffold, allowing for the creation of hyaline-like cartilage.